Your worst coaster experience
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Mine didnt happen to me, but it still left a large mark. On the Mine Ride at Cedar Point there were two rather large women in the back seat. I still have yet to figure out how these lap bars work, I guess the distance that the front of the cars lap bar goes down controls the distance that the back ones need too (someone help me on this one please). Anyways... after two workers laughed a bit and tryed to push the bar down far enough, they decided to just say "one of you leave, now". The situation could have been handled much better than it was. As far as my worst coaster experience in terms of pain, well that would have to be when I was about eight and rode Mean Streak. By no means was I ready for this one and my head was facing the bottom of the car the whole time. OUCH!
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~Nick
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~Nick
My personal bad coaster experience was a conneaut lake park in pa, I was less then 6 years old and I was flying everywhere and ended up breaking my nose from hitting the lap bad, when the train returned to the plat, the operater didn't even offer a tissue for my gushing nose. The worst coaster expirence I witnessed was at Cedar Point where I work, I was oping Raptor and the dispatch board went down and all trains came to a hault, I was in control and had no clue of how to fix it, I had a train on the lift, one at B (mid-course) and half in the plat and half in stand by and those poor people had to sit there until our slow mechanic finally got there. After sitting there locked in for over a hour I bet if those people come here to CoasterBuzz we be stateing that day!
Raptor had some major control problems at the beginning of last season! It was irritating because there didn't seem to be a lot of effort put in to making it right (by the mechanics, that is). One morning I watched the ride setup several times in the first two hours, once with me on the lift. (I was kinda pulling for the mid-course. :))
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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
Yeah, last spring was terrible, it all strarted when the floor press stopped comming up, and when the floor is down the restaint sensor is hit and the restaint will stay locked. Cedar Point has some of the worst mechanics, in 97' we has a mechanic that thought he was smart and found a way to fool the computer and send two trains out on to the lift. next year mantis will be loading a little different, ya know how the trains are always stacking? no more! now standby will be a unloading area, hopefully that will help.
2Pac, I worked on the Mine Ride last year (if your little incident was last year I might've been the one who couldn't get the bar down in the first place, I'm little and sometimes had to ask the guys for help) and let me tell you that the bars are not an easy matter to put down.
The way they work is that they lock in one place. That's it. If they cannot get to that place because of rider mass or any other reason, they will not lock. The ride op has to push down a pedal in the front of the car and simultaneously push on the front bar to lock it. If large people are in the car it is very difficult to lock the bar and if it does lock, it is extremely uncomfortable for some people because it presses down on their legs or stomachs. So either one of the women had to get out, or both of them had to.
It's a very uncomfortable situation for a ride operator to be in, you know? Usually the person just ends up taking the hint or feeling too uncomfortable sitting there and just gets out without being asked. Imagine having to ask someone to please get out of the car, you cannot ride because of your weight. It's a very delicate situation and a hard thing for both the guests involved and for the ride operator.
Natalie
*** This post was edited by Natti bee on 3/9/00. ***
The way they work is that they lock in one place. That's it. If they cannot get to that place because of rider mass or any other reason, they will not lock. The ride op has to push down a pedal in the front of the car and simultaneously push on the front bar to lock it. If large people are in the car it is very difficult to lock the bar and if it does lock, it is extremely uncomfortable for some people because it presses down on their legs or stomachs. So either one of the women had to get out, or both of them had to.
It's a very uncomfortable situation for a ride operator to be in, you know? Usually the person just ends up taking the hint or feeling too uncomfortable sitting there and just gets out without being asked. Imagine having to ask someone to please get out of the car, you cannot ride because of your weight. It's a very delicate situation and a hard thing for both the guests involved and for the ride operator.
Natalie
*** This post was edited by Natti bee on 3/9/00. ***
The thing is... the guy never asked to "please get out of the car". I understand that it isnt the easiest or most enjoyable of situations to be in. But... if the guy could have phrased it a lot better instead of making a big scene, it wouldnt have been nearly as big a deal. The odd thing was, the first guy who tried to push the bar down was a lot bigger than the girl he asked.
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~Nick *** This post was edited by 2Pac Legacy on 3/9/00. ***
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~Nick *** This post was edited by 2Pac Legacy on 3/9/00. ***
That might've been me that tried to push the bar down and couldn't do it. Email me, I like to talk to people I could have met at CP.
As for the whole ordeal, it already makes quite the scene, even before the ride op has to tell the person to get off. The train is ready to go except for one car, in most of those cases. That one car has one or two ride ops around it trying to get it closed. Obviously people are going to realize what's going on and in most cases they're going to watch, it's human nature. So the scene is already made, and most of us try to play it off a bit by laughing a little or hoping that the person realizes by themselves that this isn't going to work and they should get out. This may not be the correct way of handling it, it may be the correct way, but it's the way that a normal human being would handle the situation.
If you expect ride operators at any amusement park to be robots, doing their job with a mechanical methodity and dealing with guests using a prerecorded monotone script, you're going to be very disappointed. I do know that despite some quirks like that, our crew last year was wonderfully dedicated to the operation of the Mine Ride, proud of where we worked, and did our jobs to the best of our abilities while trying to make the guests feel excited and happy to be there. What else can you ask for?
Natalie
Will be ATL of Zone 3 Sweeps this summer and can't wait to go back!
As for the whole ordeal, it already makes quite the scene, even before the ride op has to tell the person to get off. The train is ready to go except for one car, in most of those cases. That one car has one or two ride ops around it trying to get it closed. Obviously people are going to realize what's going on and in most cases they're going to watch, it's human nature. So the scene is already made, and most of us try to play it off a bit by laughing a little or hoping that the person realizes by themselves that this isn't going to work and they should get out. This may not be the correct way of handling it, it may be the correct way, but it's the way that a normal human being would handle the situation.
If you expect ride operators at any amusement park to be robots, doing their job with a mechanical methodity and dealing with guests using a prerecorded monotone script, you're going to be very disappointed. I do know that despite some quirks like that, our crew last year was wonderfully dedicated to the operation of the Mine Ride, proud of where we worked, and did our jobs to the best of our abilities while trying to make the guests feel excited and happy to be there. What else can you ask for?
Natalie
Will be ATL of Zone 3 Sweeps this summer and can't wait to go back!
People just have to deal with there physical nature. I am 6ft 2inches tall and getting on some coasters can be very uncomfortable but I just deal with it. When they invented inverted coasters I said to myself. ""YES"" I DONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT LEG ROOM!!!!!!. When I get on traditional sitdown coasters my knees are hugged against the front. Although I have never had a ride op ask me to get off, If one said I was unsuitable for the coaster it is for my safety. Its the price you pay for the thrill.
i have to throw in about Premier. i've spent several of my summers (5) working at GLP (now SFO) and Jeff is right about the corp. THey don't want to pay for anything that isn't a ride.
THe problem with the staff (and GLP was pretty notorious about its poor guest service) is that the park hasn't had enough staff for over three years now. I understand that we are not the only ones, but last year we didn't have enough experienced managers for all of the stands from day one! Let alone enough people to fry burgers. (ANyone wonder why Mr. Hero and western Pizza was never open in Aug.)
Premier doesn't pay enough to the "team member" to get them to stick around very long. If you can make it into management, then it's worth the time. But pouring beers in the heat all afternoon is not an easy thing to do for about $7/hour. So our staff is overworked, underpaid and to a degree underappreciated. Some of the people we have are really good, but it gets hard being yelled at everyday because we don't have enough people to run efficiently.
Also people who should be let go can slip through because of the staffing pinch.
THere are just to many better jobs out there for college students today. Where they can get experience for the "real world"
So the situation is bad, i'm not denying that. But it's not all our fault. For every bad one, there are more that are working to make your day go smoothly. After all we're talking about the people on the other side of the counter too. ;)
THe problem with the staff (and GLP was pretty notorious about its poor guest service) is that the park hasn't had enough staff for over three years now. I understand that we are not the only ones, but last year we didn't have enough experienced managers for all of the stands from day one! Let alone enough people to fry burgers. (ANyone wonder why Mr. Hero and western Pizza was never open in Aug.)
Premier doesn't pay enough to the "team member" to get them to stick around very long. If you can make it into management, then it's worth the time. But pouring beers in the heat all afternoon is not an easy thing to do for about $7/hour. So our staff is overworked, underpaid and to a degree underappreciated. Some of the people we have are really good, but it gets hard being yelled at everyday because we don't have enough people to run efficiently.
Also people who should be let go can slip through because of the staffing pinch.
THere are just to many better jobs out there for college students today. Where they can get experience for the "real world"
So the situation is bad, i'm not denying that. But it's not all our fault. For every bad one, there are more that are working to make your day go smoothly. After all we're talking about the people on the other side of the counter too. ;)
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